el ile tutma topu

Globalisation and Polycentrism

Conscious Practitioner Week 5

Dr Digdem Sezen digdem.sezen@uca.ac.uk

Learning Objectives

by Selcuk Erdem

Selçuk Erdem (@selcukerdem) / Posts / X

Unfair game

Blank paper pieces for mock up on a beige | Premium Photo

(or a map of your home country)

Mistakes vary with…

Hollanda haritası

Drawing the Netherlands

Jaap Van Ginneken

Map of The Netherlands | RailPass.com

Drawing Europe

A picture containing diagram

Description automatically generated

Drawn by a student from Holland

Diagram

Description automatically generated

Drawn by a student from Japan

Diagram

Description automatically generated

Drawn by a student from Brazil

Diagram

Description automatically generated

Drawn by a student from the US

Diagram

Description automatically generated

Drawn by a student from Palestine

Diagram

Description automatically generated

Drawn by a student from Indonesia

The mechanisms in all these cases are basically threefold

Basic features in common

how to draw map of world | Open this world map template JPEG and save it to  your disk. | World map outline, World map template, Cool world map

Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from an unprecedented distance of over 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40.5 AU), as part of that day's Family Portrait series of images of the Solar System.

A screenshot of a cell phone

Description automatically generated
gezegen, Astronomi nesnesi, küre, dış mekan, dış uzay içeren bir resim

Yapay zeka tarafından oluşturulmuş içerik yanlış olabilir.
gezegen, Astronomi nesnesi, küre, dış mekan, dış uzay içeren bir resim

Yapay zeka tarafından oluşturulmuş içerik yanlış olabilir.

When did globalisation start?

Albert Park, Middlesbrough – Sundial (1876)

Around the World in Eighty Days - Wikipedia

first published in French in 1872

Amazon.com: Around the World in Eighty Days Illustrated By Tom Gill and  Edited By Verral: Jules Verne: 圖書

1872

sıcak hava balonu, hava taşıtı, balon, taşımak, nakletmek içeren bir resim

Yapay zeka tarafından oluşturulmuş içerik yanlış olabilir.
80 DAYS | Nintendo Switch download software | Games | Nintendo UK
harita, dünya, Dünya, uzay, boşluk, mekan içeren bir resim

Yapay zeka tarafından oluşturulmuş içerik yanlış olabilir.

“I am a human being. I consider nothing human foreign to me.”Terence

Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto

The phrase comes from the Roman playwright Terence in his 165 BCE play Heautontimorumenos (The Self-Tormentor)

kişi, şahıs, insan yüzü, giyim, adam, insan içeren bir resim

Yapay zeka tarafından oluşturulmuş içerik yanlış olabilir.

Jeffrey SACHS

A close up of a logo

Description automatically generated
The Ages of Globalization
A screenshot of a cell phone

Description automatically generated

Ages of Globalization: Dates and Breakthroughs

Source: Jeffrey Sachs, Ages of Globalization, Columbia University Press, 2020, p.26

Early human migrations - Wikipedia

1. Paleolithic Age- great dispersal of homo sapiens (from 70.000 BCE to 10.000 BCE)

2. Neolithic revolution – farming and villages (from 10.000 BCE to 3000 BCE)

3. Equestrian Age- (from 3000 BCE to 1000 BCE)

4. Classical Age – land-based empires (from 1000 BCE to 1500 CE)

5. Ocean Age – Global empires (from 1500 to 1800)

Industrial Revolution: Definitions, Causes & Inventions - HISTORY

6. Industrial age – from 1800 to 2000

War and Peace in the Global Village by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore  (Bantam) - Fonts In Use

7. Digital age –connectivity, computation, AI (from 2000 to the present)

War and peace in the global village: M. McLuhan, Quentin Fiore, 1968

Blue MarbleImage of the Earth from Apollo 17 (1972)Image Credit: NASA

Image of the Earth from Apollo 17

We are linked in multiple ways

Biology

Climate

Art

Ideas

Business

Science

Trade

Migration

Ecology

Technology

Who makes games? Who decides what is “global”?

Games circulate globally, but production is uneven

AAA Dominant Hubs

Emerging Hubs

Massive budgets

Lower budgets

Large teams (hundreds–thousands)

Small/indie teams

Aggressive global marketing

Limited reach

Stories designed to appeal to “everyone”

Strong local cultural identity

Huge risk tolerance due to funding

High vulnerability to market failure

The Last of Us (video game) - Wikipedia
Grand Theft Auto V - Wikipedia
Final Fantasy XII - Wikipedia
Mount&Blade - TaleWorlds Entertainment

Türkiye (TaleWorlds, Ankara)

India (Nodding Heads Games)

Taiwan (Red Candle Games)

“Global hits” reflect dominant cultural norms

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Wikipedia
Cyberpunk 2077 - Wikipedia

Globalised success ≠ culturally inclusive production

“Globalised success”

Not culturally inclusive because…

Fortnite

Over 400M players worldwide

Art style and cultural signals rooted in US pop culture

FIFA

Global brand, millions of players from every region

Eurocentric representation, major clubs & leagues prioritised

Open world AAA like GTA

Global sales, universal gameplay format

Narratives based on US city tropes and crime myths

Fortnite: Save the World - Wikipedia
EA SPORTS FC 24 Standard Edition PS4 | VideoGame | English : Amazon.co.uk:  PC & Video Games

Localisation vs Co-autorship

Localisation adapts culture around a finished game, co-authorship shapes the game from within the culture.

Localisation (late-stage adaptation)

Element

Japanese Version

U.S. Localised Version

What This Shows

Setting

Tokyo-like city

“Los Angeles, USA”

America only in name, visuals stay Japanese

Legal System

Based on Japanese courts (quick trials, confession-driven)

Still presented as U.S. courts

Cultural logic unchanged

School Culture

Sailor uniforms, Japanese school design

Still shown visually

Localisation can’t erase embedded context

Food

Bento, onigiri (rice balls)

Renamed as “burgers” in dialogue

Text changed, visuals not

Names

Puns in Japanese (e.g., Naruhodo = “I see”)

Westernised puns (Phoenix Wright)

Different humour but original meanings lost

Architecture & Surroundings

Shrines, hot springs, kanji signage

Kept the same

Worldbuilding remains Japanese

Humour & References

Based on Japanese pop culture

Rewritten for American audiences

Cultural translation over adaptation

Aspect

How Culture Shapes the Game

Story

Based on Inupiat traditional storytelling : young girl and fox navigating Arctic challenges

Characters

Designed with Inupiat community members to ensure authentic roles, clothing, mannerisms

Game Mechanics

Cooperative mechanics reflect Indigenous values of interdependence and community survival

Visual Style

Art inspired by traditional clothing, environment, and animal symbolism

Embedded Knowledge

Short documentary “cultural insight” videos unlock as you progress — stories told by Elders

Authorship

Co-developed with the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, not for but with the community

Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa) : Alaska Native Co-authorship

shout out 3 games that feel “global”

Shout out 3 games that feel “local” or culturally specific

Cultural Power is Shifting: Polycentric Influence

AAA-scale innovation outside U.S/Japan reverse influence on global RPGs

Sets new standards for MMOs

art style + systems now copied globally

Non-Western

medieval world-building

influencing strategy

& mod culture

Afro-Brazilian physics platformer shaping indie aesthetics

Globalisation and Polycentrism in Games

ECONOMIC GLOBALISATION

CULTURAL GLOBALISATION

POLYCENTRISM: A NEW CULTURAL LOGIC

Economic Globalisation

Game development = transnational production chains

AAA studios outsource to cheaper labour regions (art assets, QA, localisation)

Platform holders (Sony, Microsoft, Tencent, Valve, Apple) dominate distribution

Mobile gaming + F2P economies expanded reach to Global South

Globalised labour ≠ globalised authorship

Ubisoft Shanghai | Rainbow Six Wiki | Fandom

Game development

=

transnational production chains

Riot Games: owned by Tencent (China), run from U.S.

Logos - Tencent

Multinational but not polycentric

Electronic Arts Romania SRL - MobyGames

AAA studios outsource to cheaper labour regions (art assets, QA, localisation)

Art

Testing

If a game is built in 10 countries, whose story is it telling?

Does global labour automatically mean global creativity?”

Concept

Key Question

Example

Economic Globalisation

Who controls production?

Ubisoft, EA, Riot

Cultural Globalisation

Who defines the “global” aesthetic?

CoD, FIFA, Phoenix Wright

Polycentrism

How does power shift across cultures?

Genshin Impact, Raji, Dandara